Pages

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

This is a book by the
same author who wrote One Day (an excellent book whose review can be found here)
and this was a birthday gift by someone who was sure I would like it, having
never seen the film.

This is a book I put
off for a while, and for good reason. The book itself wasn’t bad and enjoyed the
general plot and setting. Nicholls has this talent which is used to good effect
of writing books which exist in a very realistic setting and which are simultaneously
mundane and interesting.

The film is a
Rom-Com-esque affair, and the book is the same. Our main character is infinitely
obsessed with his own self-appearance and finding a relationship with exactly
the person he wants to be with while forgetting and ignoring more important
aspects of his life. It’s a fairly typical coming of age story and the plot
moves along nicely without plodding overly-much.

There’s very little I
can say on the subject of the plot (beyond a typical synopsis) that can’t be
said. It’s your average novel of a typical student and the things he gets up to
in that and although it isn’t boring, it is infinitely mundane. The two things
worth mentioning are the romance and the central event.

The latter is easier,
so I’ll start there. The book is all about University Challenge- a British TV
series which pits the teams of British Universities against one another in a
competition of general knowledge, which is either very interesting and
informative or dull and inane depending on which side of the fence you’re on.
It’s essentially a daytime television so which is but more relevant. But the
plot of the book is our protagonist wanting to be on this team and do well. He’s
an intelligent lad and the entire thing is relevant mostly as a plot device,
but in many ways I also felt it was a reflection of our MC himself because he
obviously thought and ability to remember things meant he was intelligent and
he concentrated on knowing facts. Maybe I’m just fundamentally different, but
this irked me as a student myself because my degree (Maths) teaches that
understanding supersedes just knowing facts because it is way of thinking which they want to teach you
and if all you do is memorise, then what have you learnt that you’ll actually
remember? I find the whole things fairly bizarre, but then I have a poor memory
for general knowledge. Maybe because I think of it as a little irrelevant.

The romance
was...cringe-worthy. I won’t say too much on this because it reveals too much,
but it was predictable and unsatisfying. It reminded me of One Day in that respect
because Nicholls give you a (painfully realistic) non-perfect ending. It is a
non-issue, but it makes the book weird and you can’t help but feel for the poor
guy in his endeavours.

Not a bad book, but
certainly not amazing. I think if you’re looking for an easy read over a period
of time where you don’t have the hours to dedicate to reading, it’s easy going
and not hard to follow. The downside of this is that I found it sometimes
uninspiring thing to sit and read.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

These are the next
instalments in the Forest of Hands and Teeth series. This is going to be a
simultaneous review simply because I read both in such a short space of time
that they aren’t really separate books in my head. (So if I say ‘this book’ I
don’t distinguish between the two, although I know they are respective books!)

Firstly, wow.

A lot happens in
these books. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is but a prequel to the events that
go down. In many ways, it is that book that lets you see what the world is like
before Carrie Ryan takes you on this amazing journey.

In general, the story
and world are amazing. This is post-apocalyptic and it is completely
understandable what is done even if we must disagree and not approve of
everything. It makes it fascinating because you face moral dilemmas (from the
safety of your armchair or bed!) that are almost worrying that you might think.
I question who I agree with...and concluding that I agree with the idealist and
the pragmatist/survivalist I don’t know where I stand. The plot nicely moves
along and it never feels too centralised and dull- even without great movement
(sometimes) there is always fantastic pace and Carrie Ryan uses her environment
and world to great effect. Zombies are ever-present and this is taken full
advantage of which makes both books engrossing and “unputdownable”.

The characters in
both books are the same in terms of our main protagonists although obviously
the cast of side characters differs between the two as befits the setting and
progression of the story. But the characters...oh lord! There are circles
within circles, triangles within triangles. It like trying to endless half a
number...it just goes into the infinity of numbers and it won’t end. Now
imagine each of those halves is a part of the characters personality and they
are built of these endless inconsistencies. Well now consider there are four
main characters. Add in one or two important side characters who are similarly
halved. You just have this huge amazing mess that creates this powerful, human
characters. Now, I ain’t saying they’re perfect, but they are darn good...and
they make for excellent reading.

So in general, I am
very fond of these books. They were a huge improvement on the first and much
more nitty-gritty. I’m taken along in this journey...I read these books over a
two day period whilst on holiday and I was thrown into a rut after finishing
(and after the first of the two books, the beach we were staying became
infinitely eerie!). These come highly recommended.

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

This book was
semi-steampunk, somewhat of a hero novel, a little bit of mystery and whole lot
of crazy. I felt like I was reading in a stupor the entire time and I don’t
think the entirety of the novel was even consistently interesting...but it was
a unique read.

The beginning threw
me through a loop because it is highly disjointed and where as multiple
viewpoints can work when they exist in the same literary universe, here I felt
like I was little lost because things didn’t seem to fit with what was said and
I only really started to get used to it when I semi-convinced myself I was
reading two books instead of one. It was definitely weird.

Moving onto the book
itself...it wasn’t bad really. It isn’t the most amazing book I’ve read in my
entire life or even in that year, but it was little astonishing. The story came
together towards the end, and it reminds of those films that you just sort of
suspend disbelief of and keep watching in hope that the end explains it all. In
fairness, it did, but I guess I wasn’t wholly satisfied with the ending I got.

It is also fair to
comment that this is the first book I’ve read which could be aptly described as
being a mystery novel because it quite successfully left me lost and confused
without being completely out of the loop. But I think the combination of
everything made me a little bit overwhelmed at a time when I didn’t have the liberty
of frequent or even intense reading so I’d often forget bits here and there.

Overall, it wasn’t a
bad book. I bought it on a whim in waterstones, and I don’t regret that
purchase because it was definitely different to anything I’ve read before...for
better and for worse. I think I ever try another mystery novel I’ll try
something more mystery based. I’d say this book was sold as a modern-day hero
book (in NYC) but that wasn’t really what I got.

In a word, my
sentiment is "confused". Even now, a good few months on, I’m not 100% sure what I
think of it.